After several decades of more sentimental East-West fusions generally consisting of details from one of the traditions pasted on to the basic structure of the other, the Chinese-Western fusion music of Chou Wen-Chung, difficult but productive of a whole stream of new ideas, still sounds good. Chou has remained quite active in old age; the most recent work here, Twilight Colors, was composed in 2007. As usual with Chou, all the music consists of Western procedures, in the basic language of Chou's mentor, Edgard Varčse, put ...
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After several decades of more sentimental East-West fusions generally consisting of details from one of the traditions pasted on to the basic structure of the other, the Chinese-Western fusion music of Chou Wen-Chung, difficult but productive of a whole stream of new ideas, still sounds good. Chou has remained quite active in old age; the most recent work here, Twilight Colors, was composed in 2007. As usual with Chou, all the music consists of Western procedures, in the basic language of Chou's mentor, Edgard Varčse, put into Chinese aesthetic molds. The Chinese ideas here are primarily pictorial; the composer indicates that the String Quartet No. 1 ("Clouds"), from 1996, refers in its title to "the quality shared by cloud formations and calligraphy: the continual process of change." The work is in a five-movement arch shape and would make a good if dense pairing with Bartók's fourth or fifth quartet. As with Bartók's later music, all three works here add large elements of counterpoint to the...
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